


A Merlinian Christmas Miracle

by yogini



Series: Christmas fluff Camelot style [20]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur is less than smooth in picking someone up, Caring, Christmas Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, Ficlet, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious idiots with attentive friends, Pining, Protectiveness, Scheming Gwaine, Sharing a Bed, Short One Shot, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 22:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2827997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yogini/pseuds/yogini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin finds himself in a difficult situation when he travels to celebrate Christmas with his friends. Lucky for him there is a knight in shining armour coming to his rescue…</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Merlinian Christmas Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little anda I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

”Fuck!” Merlin hit the steering wheel in frustration and then banged his head against it too, for good measure. What had he done to deserve this? Why was the universe punishing him this way? Couldn’t his car have decided to keep it together just a little longer? He groaned as he checked his cell phone again. Almost no battery and no reception whatsoever.

“Fuck!” he cursed again.

 

He’d so much looked forward to celebrating Christmas with all his friends and to see Gwen and Lancelot’s new house but now it seemed that he wouldn’t make it there. Sitting in his broken down car at the side of a rarely travelled road, late at Christmas Eve and with no other means of communication than shouting and hoping that someone might hear him the odds could certainly have been better. And to make things even worse, there was a heavy snow fall and bloody freezing outside. No one in their right mind would go out in this weather, apart from himself of course. But he’d had an emergency at work and had been forced to stay late and, by the looks of it, he was going to be even later now.

 

Merlin tried to calculate how far away from the house he was and if he’d even make it there on foot. Then he remembered hearing that it was safer to stay in the car and wait for assistance in situations like these. But he was already very cold and started to panic slightly. All the others had already arrived and he couldn’t hope for any of his friends passing by. He curled into a ball to keep himself as warm as he could and tried to come up with a plan. But his thoughts were sluggish and unfocused and he was tired, so bloody tired. His eyelids slipped closed and he didn’t have the energy to stop them.    

 

When Merlin came to again he dimly realized that he wasn’t in his car anymore. He was in a thankfully very warm and soft bed and a familiar person sat beside it.

“Merlin, how are you feeling?”

“Um, confused?” Merlin croaked and Lancelot held a glass of water to his lips.

“Better?” he asked with a smile as Merlin quickly drank all of it.

“Yeah” Merlin nodded, stretching his arms and legs and was relieved to find that everything seemed to be working fine. “What happened?” he asked Lancelot as he started to sit up. “Where’s my car? _And why am I naked?_ ” Self-consciously he yanked the duvet up to his chin to cover up his body and glared at Lancelot, who simply held up a hand to soothe him.

“You were so cold, we had to get you warm quickly” he explained. “Body heat’s the quickest way.”

“ _We_?” Merlin asked in alarm. Just exactly how many people had seen him naked? His feelings must have shown because Lancelot was quick to reassure him.

“Just me and Arthur” he said. “The others only helped carry you inside and bring blankets.

“ _Arthur_ saw me naked?” Merlin spluttered mortified but before Lancelot had the time to answer someone entered the room.

“Arthur did a lot more than that in fact. Not only did he see you naked but he also slept beside you, all naked himself” Gwaine said cheerfully as Merlin blushed crimson red and hid under the duvet.

 

The gods of irony were seriously messing with him. When he finally got what he’d wanted to for years, Arthur Pendragon in all his glory, naked in his bed, it wasn’t in an oh-baby-need-you so-bad-gonna-fuck-you-six-ways-to-Sunday kind of way but in a poor-little-Merlin-can’t-take-care-of-himself-and-needs-to-be-rescued kind of way. Merlin groaned and decided right there and then that he’d live the rest of his life right under that very duvet to avoid any further embarrassment.

 

“Gwaine, get out!” Arthur ordered and both Lancelot and Gwaine, the latter extremely reluctantly, left the room. He held out a steaming cup of tea that Merlin accepted without daring to look at the blonde man.

“So, how are you feeling?” Arthur asked as the silence dragged out.

“Fine, really, never been better or hotter… I mean warmer!” Merlin nervously rambled and felt his blush deepen. Arthur always had that effect on him. Meanwhile, the man in question pulled some of the extra blankets off the bed and folded them.

“Yeah, we thought better safe than sorry, we pretty much put on all the blankets we could find. Ah, well, if you’re all right then maybe I should… you know” he mumbled, squirming uncomfortably, and began to leave.

“Yeah, absolutely” Merlin answered, equally uncomfortable. “Um, just what happened really? I don’t remember much.”

“I was late from work, saw a car on the side and found you inside it, half turned into an icicle. Dragged you out, took you here and then Lancelot checked you over. Always on doctor duty, that one.” Merlin nodded at this, if anyone was the perfect doctor then it would be Lancelot.

“He told us that you’d be fine as long as we got your body temperature up so we started turning up the radiators and getting every blanket we could find in here” Arthur continued. “But you weren’t really warming up so he suggested that someone would get in bed with you, so you know, body heat and all that…” Arthur was blushing faintly now and Merlin was certain that his own cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg on.

“So you… did that?” he croaked although he already knew the answer and Arthur looked at the floor.

“Well, I… Someone had to, right? I mean… Gwaine offered of course but Percival hit him over the head.” Merlin chuckled at this, he hadn’t yet met Gwaine’s new boyfriend but he had a feeling that he liked the guy already.

“I can imagine” he mumbled. “Hey, thanks for… you know.”

“It was my pleasure” Arthur blurted out before looking horrified when he realized what he’d just said. “I mean, you’re welcome” he quickly amended, his facial colour now just shy of matching Merlin’s.

 

They both stared at each other until a loud catcall from the door announced that Gwaine was back.

“Whoa, it’s certainly hot in here” he commented, taking in the blush on both of the other’s faces. “So fellas, how about we get this show started?” Any protest that either Arthur or Merlin might have tried to voice was quickly ruled out by Gwaine as he pulled up a chair and plopped down.

“It’s getting really annoying to see the two of you dance around each other so let’s get a few things clear, shall we?” Without waiting for an answer Gwaine continued, looking at Arthur. “Merlin here is all embarrassed because he has a crush on you Arthur and he thinks that you only care for him as a friend.” Gwaine then turned to Merlin. “Well Merlin, I can tell you that Arthur here would rather have killed me than let me get into that bed of yours since he fancies you since, well forever. So, with this new information at hand, how about the two of you actually do something about it and stop this pointless pining? We’re all heading to the pub so feel free to be as loud as you like.” And with that, and an exaggerated bow, Gwaine sauntered out and closed the door behind him.

 

“Well, that was certainly… um…” Arthur said hesitantly.

“The most embarrassing thing ever?” Merlin suggested and Arthur nodded.

“Yeah” he acquiesced, scratching his head. “So… I like you, you like me, we have a house to ourselves and our friends already expects us to fuck each other’s brains out so why don’t we?”

It wasn’t the most romantic proposal that Merlin had ever had but it was from Arthur and that made it prefect.

“You’re so lucky I already fancy you, idiot” he mumbled and threw the covers back in invitation.


End file.
